


David Hasselhoff's Got Nuthin on Me

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode: s01e16 20 Hours in L.A., F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-03-15
Updated: 2009-03-15
Packaged: 2019-05-15 05:20:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14784288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: From 20 hours in LA





	David Hasselhoff's Got Nuthin on Me

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

  
Author's notes: This is part of a series of challenges that Josh and Donna could have gotten together after any given moment. The beginning dialog is from 20 Hours in LA which spawned their "moment."  


* * *

DONNA: That was it?  
JOSH: Yeah.  
DONNA: Just because she said she was with somebody?  
JOSH: She said she was with somebody.  
DONNA: Oh, Josh.  
JOSH: Donna, she's with somebody!  
DONNA: She could have just been saying that.  
JOSH: Why would she just be saying that?  
DONNA: For the allure.  
JOSH: Oh.  
DONNA: Go see her before we leave.  
JOSH: It's one in the morning!  
DONNA: Go knock on her door.  
JOSH: I'm not going to knock on her door at one in the morning.  
DONNA: Yes! Because you're whisking away to Washington, and you had to   
see her one more time before you left, because God knows what fate   
awaits you when once you get there.  
JOSH: (frowning) Are you okay?  
DONNA: Gather ye rosebuds, Josh.  
JOSH: Donna, I am not going to knock on her door. (she clucks like a   
chicken) Were you just clucking like a chicken, is that what that was?  
DONNA: Yes.  
JOSH: I couldn't knock on her door if I wanted to. I don't have her room   
number.  
DONNA: Yes, you do. (Donna waves a piece of paper in front of Josh and   
speaks in a sing-song) Phone Message! Phone message!  
JOSH: Okay, first of all--don't do that thing anymore with the (he mocks   
her sing-song) 'Phone message! Phone message!'  
DONNA: And?  
JOSH: Tell them I'll be down in one minute. (beat) Wait, how's she going   
to know I'm knocking on the door?  
DONNA: There's a button outside. A light flashes.  
JOSH: Tell them I'll be there in a minute.

Before I know it, I’m halfway down the hall before I realize I’ve been talked into something ridiculous by Donnatella Moss again. Damn! How is it I keep falling for this stuff with her? Yes, I’ve had a passing interest in Joey, but she’s with somebody. And she lives in California, too.

I turn back around and march back to my room, where I find Donna lying on her back on the bed with her palms pressed to her eyes. 

“There’s a button outside, a light flashes.” she drones again.

“Why?” I ask and casually lean up against the wall and crossing my arms.

“Because how would she know someone’s at the door?” she says moving her hands and staring at the ceiling. Her eyes look red. Was it from the pressure of her palms?

“No, why am I even knocking on her door?” 

“Because you like her.” she says sitting up.

“She’s a very nice person.”

“You’re attracted to her, I mean.” She looks down and picks at something on her sweater.

“She’s very beautiful.” I acknowledge. 

“She has brown hair.”

“What?”

“You like brunettes. Mandy, Joey...” 

“I don’t prefer brunettes. I don’t have a hair color preference, Donna.” 

I push myself off the wall and walk over to the mini-bar and pull out a bottle of water. “Josh, you should be knocking on her door right now.”

“She went to the party with someone, Donna. I’m not going to go bust in the middle of that. I’m not that interested in her.” I sit down in a chair, prop my feet up on another chair and take a long sip from the water bottle. I’m intrigued as to why Donna won’t meet my eyes.

“You seemed smitten with her.” she says softly.

“I like fighting with her.” I shrug and Donna actually scoffs at me. “I like fighting with you, too.” I say from out of nowhere. 

“That’s because you’re smarter than me.” she says and she’s still talking in this very quiet voice. 

Here we go. I thought we were starting to get past this. Donna’s last real boyfriend, Dr. Freeride, killed her self-confidence and sense of self-worth. She’s such a great person; I hate that she doubts herself like this.

“Donna, a college education doesn’t make me smarter than you; it makes me know more about politics and law because that’s what I studied.” She’s unengaged in the conversation right now. I’m not used to that. “You know what I liked tonight?”

“When I almost fell into Ted Marcus’s pool trying to meet Matt Perry?” she smirks a bit, looks over and then looks away. In that split second, I saw her eyes glistening. Was she crying over something? 

“Okay, you know what else I liked tonight?” I snark.

“What?” she sighs.

“When you held my hand.” 

She looks over at me. Yeah, her eyes are shiny; something’s up. 

“And I liked how beautiful you looked.” 

She blushes and looks down at her hands. 

“Why do you look like you were upset over something?” I finally ask.

“Well, I almost fell in a pool over Matt Perry in front of Matt Perry! It would have been mortifying!”

“Come on.” I say, putting the water bottle down and sitting next to her on the bed. “What’s wrong?” 

“I’m tired it’s late, and it’s really three hours later for us and we still have to fly back to Washington.”

Avoidance, thy name is Donna.

“So, I was talking to Ed and Larry at the fundraiser,” I start. “And they were ogling all the women...”

“So were you.”

“Yeah, but they were being kinda sleazy about it.” I reply. I look down and gently scratch at her hand with my finger. “But they were ogling all the women and one of them was talking about how it should have been a daytime fundraiser so all the women would be in bikinis and the other one agreed and said that’d be cool because they’d get to see you and CJ in a bathing suit again.” 

“Ew.” she says scrunching her face. 

“I nearly pushed them in the pool.”

“That’s nice of you to want to look out for me and CJ.”

“I wasn’t really that mad about CJ.”

She looks up at me and her eyes are searching mine for something, probably the smart alec remark one of us always makes when things get this charged between us. It helps us retreat to our corners and analyze and agonized for hours over what the hell it was the other said and what they really meant. 

“You were mad about me?” she asks and I nod. She sounds a little hopeful now. “Why?” 

“Well, one, I missed seeing you in your bikini; and two, I didn’t like the thought of them looking at you like that. I didn’t like the thought of anyone looking at you like that.”

I see her brush a tear away and then look over towards the window. “I feel like an idiot.” she confesses. “The whole day, I’ve been telling you to go after Joey and praying that you wouldn’t.” 

“Why?” I ask. She’s not meeting my eyes again, but if it helps her be honest, so be it. I rest my hand on top of hers and she takes a deep breath.

“Because I don’t like the thought of anyone looking at you like that either.” she whispers, and now looks me straight in the eyes, and I smile. After a few moments, she smiles slowly, too as I gently push a piece of hair behind her ear. 

“You know, it’s too bad you missed me in my bikini. I’m really something to look at you know.” she says boldly. I refrain from telling her that I know this because I’ve imagined it a few hundred times. 

“It really is unfortunate.” I nod.

“I could probably arrange a private viewing session.”

I gulp.

“It’s February.” I squeak.

“I’m thinking it’s probably something that would take place indoors.” the tone of her voice just plummeted and the look in her eyes is hungry. I like this combination.

“I think I could...yeah, I think I could get behind that.” I nod.

“Kay.” she smiles. 

Before I give myself the chance to chicken out, I lean in quick and kiss her. She was ready for it because she’s an immediate participant and her hand snakes up into my hair as my fingers rest on her jaw. 

I have to tell you, Donna’s a good kisser. I don’t like thinking about how she got this good, but I’m liking it. 

 

Things are running through my head a mile a minute now. Kissing Donna, Donna in a bikini, telling Leo, getting yelled at by Leo, Donna naked, the plane ride home on Air Force One where I’m sure she’ll fall asleep on my shoulder like she always does, more kissing of Donna. 

But oddly enough, the one thing that’s really standing out, is David Hasselhoff’s got nuthin’ on me.

THE END


End file.
